Kratom Mitragyna
speciosa

Kratom is the name of a
medicinal leaf from a tree in the Rubiaceae
family native to Southeast Asia. The locals have been know to use this
plant for its medicinal quality. Native people often chew the kratom
leafs to help them work
harder and longer. Kratom is often
thought of as the "workers drug" because users enjoy working while
chewing kratom leaves.

Mitragynine is the main
alkaloid found in the kratom leaf. This
alkaloid is responsible for kratoms desirable effects. There's a
complex series of 14-24 alkaloids, identified in the kratom leaf, and
can be extracted through water and an alcohol extraction combined.

Kratom trees, usually grow to a
height of 12-30 feet tall and the
leafs can grow 7 inches long and 4 inches wide. The flowers on this
tree are one of the wired est things Ive seen. They look like little
yellow spike balls. You can see images of the kratom tree and otherkratom
images here.

At this time kratom is a
controlled substance in Thailand, Malaysia,
Myanmar, Bhutan, New Zealand, Australia, Finland, Denmark, Poland,
Latvia, Lithuania and Sweden.

Thailand

The Thai government passed the
Kratom Act 2486 which went into effect
on August 3, 1943. This law makes planting the tree illegal and
requires existing trees to be cut down. This law has not stopped kratom
use completely and is hard to enforce since kratom grows wild all over
Thialand.

Kratom
Forms

Before using kratom its
advisable to read as much information about
this plant as possible. You always want to start with a low dose and
work your way up. You can read more information about kratom
dosage here.There
are different forms as well as different ways to ingest your kratom.
The main forms of kratom are crushed
leaf,powdered
kratom leafs, kratom
extracts,
and kratom
resin. These different forms
have
different strengths requiring different dosage. I enjoy the powder but
it can take large amounts to have maximum effects.

Types
of Kratom

There are several different
"strains" of kratom all varying in strength
and effects. The different types of kratom are bali,Thai,Borneo,Maeng Da Kratom,Indo,
and more. Bali and Borneo tend to be the cheapest and I take it these
strains are less potent. Thai kratom and maeng da kratom are reasonably
priced and have more potency. I personally have bought allot of Thai
kratom its not to expensive and has nice effects.

Active
Alkaloids in Kratom

There are many alkaloids found
in the kratom leaf among them are mitragynine, mitraphylline, and
7-hydroxymitragynine.
These are the main alkaloids thought to be responsible for kratoms
effects. Acting primarily as mu-opioid receptor agonists,
mitragynine, mitraphylline, and 7-hydroxymitragynine feel similar to
opiates.

The structure of these
molecules are very similar to
psychedelics but have no psychedelic effects at all. Since they
interact with opiate receptors kratom is some times used to prevent or
delay withdrawal in an opiate dependent individual.
In my opinion kratom is a much safer substance to wean your self off
opiates then pharmaceuticals like methadone.